IV 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 353 

Honoring the accomplishments and legacy of Juan Felipe Herrera. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 8, 2015 

Mr. TAKANO (for himself, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. SWALWELL

of California, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. 

SCHIFF, Mr. CA ́RDENAS, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. HONDA, Mrs. TORRES, Mr. 

AGUILAR, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. FARR, Mr. RUIZ, and 

Mr. MCGOVERN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on House Administration 

RESOLUTION 

Honoring the accomplishments and legacy of Juan Felipe 

Herrera. 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera was born December 27, 1948, 

in Fowler, California, to parents Maria de la Luz Quintana and Felipe Emilio Herrera who were migrant farmworkers in California; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera spent his childhood living in 

farm communities in Southern California and discovered 

his love of verse through his elementary school choir; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera received an Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) scholarship to attend the University of California, Los Angeles, and graduated with a 

Bachelor of Arts in Social Anthropology in 1972; 


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•HRES 353 IH 

Whereas while at the University of California, Los Angeles, 

Juan Felipe Herrera immersed himself in the Chicano 

Civil Rights movement and performed in experimental 

theater; 

Whereas after graduating from the University of California, 

Los Angeles, he moved to the Bay Area and joined the 

Beat poetry movement, and was active with the poetry 

movement in the San Francisco Mission District; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera graduated from Stanford University with a Master of Arts in Social Anthropology in 

1980; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera graduated from the University 

of Iowa Writers’ Workshop with a Masters of Fine Arts 

in 1990; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera has published 29 books in 

total, which include collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels, and children’s books; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera’s collections of poetry include 

Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems 

that won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the 

PEN/Beyond Margins Award, 187 Reasons Mexicans 

Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971–2007, and 

Crashboomlove, which received the Americas Award; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera’s books for children include 

Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes, SkateFate, Upside Down Boy, which was adapted into a musical, and 

Cinnamon Girl: Letters Found Inside a Cereal Box; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera has received numerous awards 

and fellowships including National Endowment for the 

Arts Writers’ Fellowships, California Arts Council grants, 

the UC Berkeley Regent’s Fellowship, the Guggenheim 


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•HRES 353 IH 

Fellowship, Bread Loaf Fellowship in Poetry, and the 

Stanford Chicano Fellowship; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera served as chair of the Chicano 

and Latin American Studies Department at California 

State University, Fresno; 

Whereas in 2005, Juan Felipe Herrera joined the Creative 

Writing Department at the University of California, Riverside, as the Toma ́s Rivera Endowed Chair; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera was elected a Chancellor of the 

Academy of American Poets in 2011; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera became a Director of Art at 

the Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts in Riverside, California; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera was named Poet Laureate of 

California in 2012 by Governor Edmund G. ‘‘Jerry’’ 

Brown, Jr.; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera is the father of five children 

and lives in Fresno, California, with his partner and poet, 

Margarita Robles; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera was named the 21st Poet Laureate of the United States by the Librarian of Congress, 

James H. Billington, for the 2015 through 2016 term; 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera is the first Latino Poet Laureate in the history of the United States; and 

Whereas Juan Felipe Herrera said that poetry ‘‘is a way to 

attain a life without boundaries’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) recognizes the accomplishments of Juan 

3 Felipe Herrera; 


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•HRES 353 IH 

1 (2) pledges to promote the legacy of Juan 

2 Felipe Herrera; and 

3 (3) encourages the people of the United States 

4 to explore the impact that the creative arts and po5 etry have in their daily lives. 

Æ 


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